Germany’s Green Party is collapsing and the party could lose all its seats in the national legislature, according to a Monday article in the magazine Der Spiegel.
The Greens are polling very poorly in upcoming national elections scheduled for September, and the party doesn’t seem to have a plan to solve the problem, according to Der Spiegel. The magazine notes the party is in ‘existential crisis.’
The Greens currently control 63 of the 630 seats in Germany’s national legislative body, but this is almost certain to decline during the elections. If the party doesn’t receive at least 5 percent of the vote, it will not have a representative at the federal level.
“The Greens are dying in entire regions,” writes Der Spiegel. “Their ten-nation-wide governmental participation is an illusion because the Greens are often needed as majority-makers to be an alternative to the Grand Coalition at all. But there is no sustainable electoral commitment.”
The Green Party lost every seat it held in a regional German legislature after a crushing election defeat in March. The party did not receive the 5 percent of votes required to have a representative in regional government.
Other far-left parties in Germany only received a combined 12.9 percent of the vote in the last election, which isn’t enough to form a coalition with other left-leaning parties, such as the Social Democrats. The Social Democrats saw their percentage of the vote fall in the regional elections as well.
Christian Democrats, Angela Merkel’s party, gained the most, earning 40.7 percent of the vote. The right wing anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party also did well, earning 6.2 percent.